'''English''' is the [[language]] that [[TEFL]] teachers [[teach]]. There are many varieties of English, including, but not limited to, [[American English]] (AmE), Australian English (AuE), [[British English]] (BrE), Indian English, South African English, and so on. This wide-ranging reality has led to most specialists now preferring to use the term '''the English languages''' or '''Englishes'''.

It is the subject that [[TEFL]] teachers [[teach]]. There are many varieties of English, including, but not limited to, [[American English]] (AmE), Australian English (AuE), [[British English]] (BrE), Indian English, South African English, and so on. This wide-ranging reality has led to most specialists now preferring to use the term '''the English languages''' or '''Englishes'''.

== History of English ==

== History of English ==

Revision as of 17:52, 20 July 2009

It is the subject that TEFL teachers teach. There are many varieties of English, including, but not limited to, American English (AmE), Australian English (AuE), British English (BrE), Indian English, South African English, and so on. This wide-ranging reality has led to most specialists now preferring to use the term the English languages or Englishes.

The structure of English

Vocabulary

As we saw above, by the end of the Old English (Anglo-Saxon) period the size of the lexicon was around 50,000 different words. By the end of the Middle English period (1100-1500), that figure had doubled and during the Early Modern English period (1500-1700) it doubled yet again to 200,000 lexemes. And just for the record, partly as a result of the Industrial Revolution which started in the late 18th century, and twentieth-century global expansion, it would double once more to the approximately 400,000 lexemes of Modern English (1700 to the present).